Sprinklings of history, a smidgen of genealogy, a dash of art & a dusting of architecture, all mixed together with my eccentric fascinations

12 June 2014

A taste of Africa and a slice of England

It’s almost a year since I returned to New Zealand
from two years living abroad, intending to take care of some property issues
then depart again – ha! As the Scottish bard said ‘The best laid schemes o’
Mice an’ Men, / Gang aft agley’, though I was much luckier than Burns’ ‘wee,
sleekit, cowran, timorous beastie’, who lost his home to the plough. Instead, I
sold my one-bedroom apartment and bought a studio apartment, in the same
building, so downsized my home but, luckily, didn’t lose it.

The property exchange was done and dusted by the end of
August so I could still have headed off quite quickly. But, by then, I was
teaching business English in the afternoons with one of my previous employers,
and had taken on temporary office administration work in the mornings with
another. I thought I could settle down again so one of those temp jobs soon changed
to full-time and permanent, something I quickly realised, for several reasons,
was a big mistake. However, the six months I stayed in that job did allow me to
save the money to pay for my next adventure.

On 17 June I head off for a rather extravagant 76 nights’
holiday, with 3 days in Madrid, 19 days in Morocco, 38 days in England, 2 days
in Dubai, 10 days in Tanzania, 2 more days in Dubai and a couple of nights on
planes. My itinerary includes 13 flights: an initial long haul from Auckland through
Sydney and Dubai to Madrid, and after a short stopover there on to Casablanca;
then from Marrakech to Manchester; later from London through Madrid to Dubai; a
wee break there then on to Kilimanjaro via Nairobi; later the reverse journey
from Kilimanjaro to Nairobi to Dubai; another very short break there, then home
to Auckland via Melbourne. Phew!

Apart from the short stopovers, the trip breaks into three
parts: a tour of Morocco, 5
weeks visiting friends in England,
and 10 days in Tanzania.

Morocco has
been on my list of places to visit for many years. My ex and I planned to go
there during a 9-month trip half-way around the world way back in 1983 but
didn’t quite make it – we had a couple of weeks in Tunisia, but that’s as close
as we got. The idea for this part of my trip was hatched back in May 2013 when
I was living in Cambodia and
treated myself to a 5-day birthday break in Kuala Lumpur. My cousin Julie, who lives in Singapore, flew up for the weekend to help me
celebrate and, during one of our many long conversations, we discovered a
mutual fascination with Morocco.
As she’s a teacher, she has her long break in June–July so the idea of a tour
of Morocco
in June 2014 was born. A friend of hers, Andrea, will also join us for this
adventure.

To avoid the hassle of organising the trip ourselves, we’ve
booked with Intrepid Travel. I haven’t travelled with them
before but they have a good reputation so fingers crossed it goes well. Our
tour is quite comprehensive and includes a taste of Bogart’s Casablanca, Roman
ruins at Volubilis, a camel ride into the Sahara for a desert camp, a night
with a Berber family, lunch in Ouarzazate (where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed), a couple of days in the pretty
coastal fishing town of Essaouira, and we’ve tacked on a few extra days at the
end to explore the medinas of Marrakech.

From Marrakech I fly to England
to begin a series of visits with women friends, in a small village south of Manchester, in Kent,
in Devon and in East Sussex. I haven’t been to
any of these locations before so I’m very much looking forward to long
countryside walks, visits to country houses and historic places, and spending
time with each of these wonderful women, as well as having a few nights in
London for some sightseeing there too.

For the last part of my trip I return to Africa, to Tanzania
for a 10-day adventure with The Giving Lens, an organisation
that uses the medium of photographic workshops to bring volunteers and
much-needed funds to local NGOs at the same time as providing their
participants with photographic training and a more genuine, less touristy
travel experience. I first got to know the folks at The Giving Lens when their
leader, Colby Brown, brought a team of photographers to the NGO I managed in Peru.

In Tanzania,
we’ll be volunteering with an NGO that fosters the artistic development of the
local children, we spend 3 days in a Masai village, and also volunteer with
families struggling with AIDS. For the final 3 days we’ll be on safari in the
Ngorongoro crater and the Serengeti. To see wild animals roaming free on the
plains of Africa is a long-held dream of mine so I know everything about Tanzania will
be sensational.

I have a new camera I need to learn how to use (a Canon 100D)
and new luggage to try out (an Osprey 75L Sojourner, a hybrid backpack with
wheels). I’ve had my rabies jabs (not pleasant) and bought my anti-diarrhoea
meds (the traveller’s friend!). I’ve booked all my accommodation and most of my
transport. And I’ve been enjoying farewell get-togethers with friends, some of
whom seem to think I won’t come back … but, as the man said, I’ll be back, if
only to earn the money to do it all over again or to pack up my belongings and
head back overseas to live and work! Time alone will tell which of those
scenarios pans out.

About Me

I am a writer and photographer; project
manager and English teacher; knitter and genealogist; fungi forayer and bird
watcher; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and child sponsor; tree
lover and cat person; researcher and blogger; nemophilist; and traveller.